Portrait of a Lady:Refined Beauty at Rochas

“Amazing clothes for amazing women who are just a little bit different,” said hairstylist Eugene Souleiman, summing up the aesthetic backstage at Rochas this afternoon. This season, designer Marco Zanini mentioned one woman in particular when he sat down with Souleiman to discuss the house’s fall runway show: Nicoletta Santoro, the Milan-born fashion stylist, whose slightly unconventional beauty he referenced with slightly unconventional hair. “It’s a very deep side part, which is quite masculine, really,” he said of keeping the hair sleek and smooth against the head using Wella Ocean Spritz. “It’s a matte, almost frizzy texture rather than anything too groomed or shiny.” He added a soft, irregular wave from the ears down to the ends using a curling iron, then gave it a rumpled quality by mussing it slightly with his hands. The idea was to encourage flyaway bits of static that would be ever-so-slightly visible under the bright runway lights, counterbalancing the stately glamour of those heavy crystal-drop earrings and necklaces.

Across the room, makeup artist Lucia Pieroni was alluding to another bastion of understated chic. “She’s a kind of a Lee Radziwill woman,” she said. “She’s polished, intelligent, and handsome, but she doesn’t have time to think about things like her makeup too much.” To sculpt the face subtly, she smoothed on a veil of Clé de Peau Beauté Refining Fluid Foundation, then used a pale light-reflective shade from the company's Eye Color Quad #208 as a highlighter, sweeping it along the cheekbones, bridge of the nose, and cupid’s bow of the mouth. “You know how some women have that brownish shading naturally under their eyes and it just looks kind of good?” said Pieroni, who dipped into that same eye shadow again, this time choosing a soft chocolate pigment instead. “We’re blending a bit of brown shadow along the upper and lower lash lines to create that effect.” After curling the lashes and filling in the brows to a full, defined arch with Clé de Peau Eye Brow pencil, she dabbed a bit of the company’s new rosy nude lipstick (Extra Rich Lipstick #101) on the mouth. “It’s not too lady,” she said firmly.